Inside a camera: image processing, encoding and AI
Follow the signal path and locate the bottleneck before changing hardware.
Updated
Principle and limits
The sensor converts received light into an electrical signal. Image processing adjusts that signal, for example through demosaicing, noise reduction and tone mapping. Encoding compresses video for transmission and storage. Analytics may use a separate image path with a different resolution or frame rate. Training a model and running inference are different workloads; an “AI camera” does not imply on-device training.
Installation and acceptance
Compare a moving target in the original recording and the event output. Check exposure blur before increasing sharpness or bitrate: neither restores detail never captured. Then test processor load with the intended analytics, streams and recording enabled together. Document any limits instead of assuming a universal camera architecture.